3 results
Finite-size spherical particles in a square duct flow of an elastoviscoplastic fluid: an experimental study
- Sagar Zade, Tafadzwa John Shamu, Fredrik Lundell, Luca Brandt
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- Journal:
- Journal of Fluid Mechanics / Volume 883 / 25 January 2020
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 21 November 2019, A6
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The present experimental study addresses the flow of a yield stress fluid with some elasticity (Carbopol gel) in a square duct. The behaviour of two fluids with lower and higher yield stress is investigated in terms of the friction factor and flow velocities at multiple Reynolds numbers $Re^{\ast }\in$ (1, 200) and, hence, Bingham numbers $Bi\in$ (0.01, 0.35). Taking advantage of the symmetry planes in a square duct, we reconstruct the entire 3-component velocity field from two-dimensional particle image velocimetry (PIV). A secondary flow consisting of eight vortices is observed to recirculate the fluid from the core towards the wall centre and from the corners back to the core. The extent and intensity of these vortices grows with increasing $Re^{\ast }$ or, alternately, as the plug size decreases. The second objective of this study is to explore the change in flow in the presence of particles. To this end, almost neutrally buoyant finite-size spherical particles with a duct height, $2H$, to particle diameter, $d_{p}$, ratio of 12 are used at two volume fractions $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}=5$ and 10 %. Particle tracking velocimetry is used to measure the velocity of these refractive-index-matched spheres in the clear Carbopol gel, and PIV to extract the fluid velocity. Additionally, simple shadowgraphy is also used to qualitatively visualise the development of the particle distribution along the streamwise direction. The particle distribution pattern changes from being concentrated at the four corners, at low flow rates, to being focussed along a diffused ring between the centre and the corners, at high flow rates. The presence of particles induces streamwise and wall-normal velocity fluctuations in the fluid phase; however, the primary Reynolds shear stress is still very small compared to turbulent flows. The size of the plug in the particle-laden cases appears to be smaller than the corresponding single-phase cases. Similar to Newtonian fluids, the friction factor increases due to the presence of particles, almost independently of the suspending fluid matrix. Interestingly, predictions based on an increased effective suspension viscosity agrees quite well with the experimental friction factor for the concentrations used in this study.
Turbulent duct flow with polymers
- Armin Shahmardi, Sagar Zade, Mehdi N. Ardekani, Rob J. Poole, Fredrik Lundell, Marco E. Rosti, Luca Brandt
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- Journal:
- Journal of Fluid Mechanics / Volume 859 / 25 January 2019
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 28 November 2018, pp. 1057-1083
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We have performed direct numerical simulation of the turbulent flow of a polymer solution in a square duct, with the FENE-P model used to simulate the presence of polymers. First, a simulation at a fixed moderate Reynolds number is performed and its results compared with those of a Newtonian fluid to understand the mechanism of drag reduction and how the secondary motion, typical of the turbulent flow in non-axisymmetric ducts, is affected by polymer additives. Our study shows that the Prandtl’s secondary flow is modified by the polymers: the circulation of the streamwise main vortices increases and the location of the maximum vorticity moves towards the centre of the duct. In-plane fluctuations are reduced while the streamwise ones are enhanced in the centre of the duct and dumped in the corners due to a substantial modification of the quasi-streamwise vortices and the associated near-wall low- and high-speed streaks; these grow in size and depart from the walls, their streamwise coherence increasing. Finally, we investigated the effect of the parameters defining the viscoelastic behaviour of the flow and found that the Weissenberg number strongly influences the flow, with the cross-stream vortical structures growing in size and the in-plane velocity fluctuations reducing for increasing flow elasticity.
Experimental investigation of turbulent suspensions of spherical particles in a square duct
- Sagar Zade, Pedro Costa, Walter Fornari, Fredrik Lundell, Luca Brandt
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- Journal:
- Journal of Fluid Mechanics / Volume 857 / 25 December 2018
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 26 October 2018, pp. 748-783
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We report experimental observations of turbulent flow with spherical particles in a square duct. Three particle sizes, namely $2H/d_{p}=40$, 16 and 9 ($2H$ being the duct full height and $d_{p}$ being the particle diameter), are investigated. The particles are nearly neutrally buoyant with a density ratio of 1.0035 and 1.01 with respect to the suspending fluid. Refractive index matched–particle image velocimetry (RIM–PIV) is used for fluid velocity measurement even at the highest particle volume fraction (20 %) and particle tracking velocimetry (PTV) for the particle velocity statistics for the flows seeded with particles of the two largest sizes, whereas only pressure measurements are reported for the smallest particles. Settling effects are seen at the lowest bulk Reynolds number $Re_{2H}\approx$ 10 000, whereas, at the highest $Re_{2H}\approx 27\,000$, particles are in almost full suspension. The friction factor of the suspensions is found to be significantly larger than that of single-phase duct flow at the lower $Re_{2H}$ investigated; however, the difference decreases when increasing the flow rate and the total drag approaches the values of the single-phase flow at the higher Reynolds number considered, $Re_{2H}=27\,000$. The pressure drop is found to decrease with the particle diameter for volume fractions lower than $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}=10\,\%$ for nearly all $Re_{2H}$ investigated. However, at the highest volume fraction $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}=20\,\%$, we report a peculiar non-monotonic behaviour: the pressure drop first decreases and then increases with increasing particle size. The decrease of the turbulent drag with particle size at the lowest volume fractions is related to an attenuation of the turbulence. The drag increase for the two largest particle sizes at $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}=20\,\%$, however, occurs despite this large reduction of the turbulent stresses, and it is therefore due to significant particle-induced stresses. At the lowest Reynolds number, the particles reside mostly in the bottom half of the duct, where the mean velocity significantly decreases; the flow is similar to that in a moving porous bed near the bottom wall and to turbulent duct flow with low particle concentration near the top wall.